The Copper Fox: January 2016

23 January 2016

Saturday Sampler: Snowzilla Edition

The Washington Post named our storm "Snowzilla" and this pretty much says it all:

We woke up to about a foot of snow. Tiger Lily's window was blocked by a snow drift.

I was throwing birdseed out every few hours. We may have been having a blizzard, but the birds at our house were feasting! See all the little footprints?

Whiteout conditions... can't see the houses behind us.

Tiger Lily spent the entire day at her window on her heating pad, watching the birds and the snow. She was so busy she missed her nap. She finally hit the wall about 5 this evening and went to one of her upstairs baskets and went to sleep. Blizzards are so exciting.

Here's our street Friday night.

And Saturday night. I think we've got a couple of feet, and it's still snowing. It has been snowing continuously since 1.30 pm on Friday.

Finally, a sneak peek of my "blizzard project." Hmmm... who could this be?

16 January 2016

Saturday Sampler

I haven't stitched at all this week... which irritates me and puts me behind in my stitching goals for the year already. {sigh} What have I been doing? A major, major, clean-out and re-organization of all our Christmas decorations. I wish it hadn't taken me the entire week, but I know when next Christmas rolls around I will be giving myself a big ol' pat on the back for getting it done. It will make getting things out and decorating so much faster and easier.

Anyway... here's a look at other stuff that's been happening this week. We had our first snow! Well, our first flurry anyway. We've lived in this area for 6 1/2 years and this is the latest first snow we've had. Here's a picture of the snow on its way... I love the color of the sky!

We also had rain. Here's my pretty girl.

And we had a good mail week. First, Vickie in Kentucky sent me an adorable little fox granny square that she crocheted just for me! Isn't it adorable?! This will be an ornament for my fox tree. Thank you, Vickie!

And some stash arrived. One of my year-long projects for 2016 is to stitch Little House Needleworks' Hometown Holiday. I think there are 10 designs in the series so far, and this tree lot is the latest. I'm trying to make up my mind about the fabric. I'm leaning toward gray, and found this Fabric Flair (!) gray evenweave. I like the look of a wintry sky, but I haven't settled on it yet. What do we think, stitchers?

09 January 2016

Sunday Mystery Sampler Update: Eleventh Day

In my last update, I mentioned I would be taking a break from this sampler to see what the remaining blocks would look like and to do some other Christmas stitching. I want to make some changes to blocks 8, 9, 10, and 12, but I liked block 11 as it was and went ahead and stitched it out of order. For all those who have been asking about this sampler, I really appreciate your interest and yes, I will finish it, but it will take me a few more months. I have a lot of other stitching I want to do, and I will have to fit this sampler in with my other projects.

My color choices (apart from the border, all threads are Caron Wildflowers):
border: DMC 938
words: Blackwatch
crown: Spice
snowflakes: Dawn
musical notes: Dark Shadows
house: Cinnabar
roof: Graphite
wreath: Moss
bow: Spice*
plaque: Blackwatch

Piper:
hat, pants, sleeves: Copper
coat: Storm Clouds
stockings: Chili
buttons and shoes: Dark Shadows
pipe: Dense Fog

*The yellow ribbon on the wreath is my little tribute to all the troops serving abroad and those standing watch at home who cannot spend Christmas with their families.

06 January 2016

First Finish of the Year

A cute new year freebie available here (plus more versions with different animals).

I made changes, as usual. I filled in the red fur around the eyes and nose, added some DMC blanc and 838, swapped the blue and the green, and added my initials.